L'Effet de la Culture de la Première Langue des Etudiants sur L'interprétation des Expressions Idiomatiques Anglaises

Abstract

The current study seeks to investigate the effect of first language culture on learners’ interpretation of English idiomatic expressions. This work exploreslearners’ views about whether their first language culture has an influence on their interpretation and comprehension of English idioms. Idiomatic expressions are culture-bound; consequently, we hypothesizethat the first language culture of the learners has a negative effect on their interpretation of those idioms. To achieve the aforementioned aim and to test the hypothesis, the quantitative descriptive method is used through administering a questionnaire. For this reason, fifty-five (55) Master Two LMD Learners; both male and female were chosen randomly as the sample to this study, at the Department of English, 08 Mai 1945 University – Guelma. The obtained results reveal that there is a negative effect of learners’ first language culture on their interpretation of English idioms. Thus, this confirms the stated hypothesis identified at the beginning of the research. Therefore, raising learners’ cultural awarenessand enlarging their culturalknowledge about the differences between both the first and the foreign language cultures become one of the primary goals that should be taken into consideration in the process of foreign language teaching.